Jason and Jonah: Parallel Lives?

7/7/2012

A few weeks ago I wrote about the theory that the author of the Biblical book of Judges adapted the more ancient Greek myths of Iphigenia and Persephone (Kore) in crafting the story of the sacrifice of Japeth’s daughter. Today, let’s look at another case of the Biblical authors apparently reacting to Greek myth.

In 1995, the Jewish scholar Gildas Hamel proposed that the Biblical tale of Jonah and the whale had been created with the intent of adapting and inverting the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts. Hamel noted that the Greek version of Jonah’s name, IONAS, was an anagram of the Greek version of Jason’s, IASON.

According to Hamel, the Biblical authors were attempting to react to the widespread artistic tradition (unrecorded in literature) that Jason had descended into the belly of a great serpent and through the intervention of the goddess Athena emerged alive from the monster to claim the Golden Fleece. This variant of the myth is recorded in the Douris cup, which I have used as the logo for my website.

The Douris Cup (c. 480-470 BCE). Jason (left) emerges from the mouth of the dragon as Athena (right) watches. The golden fleece hangs in the background.

But this is not the only place this image occurs. In the mirrors and medallions of the Etruscans we find the same image. Compare this Etruscan gem with a drawing of Jonah taken from an early Christian catacomb.

Cast of an Etruscan gem showing Jason emerging from the dragon. (Boston Museum of Fine Arts / Perseus Project)

Jonah as depicted in a Roman catacomb.

According to Hamel, the author of the book of Jonah saw a parallel between a hero (Jason or Jonah) being disgorged from a monster (the serpent or the sea-monster) through the intervention of a god (Athena or Yahweh). Jonah was traveling at sea, just as Jason was in legend the first to sail a large ship. Additionally, this theory would explain a strange passage in chapter 4 of Jonah where God creates the unexplained plant kikayon to shelter Jonah “from evil,” but which God destroys by creating a hungry worm. The kikayon, Hamel says, is a corruption of the kykeon, a plant-based drink sacred to the gods and used by Jason’s wife of Medea as a magical ointment to preserve Jason from evil. Jonah consumes the kikayon to purge himself of his anger at the worm, just as Jason consumes the kykeon (in Etruscan art, at least) to restore himself after emerging from the serpent. In ancient and medieval times worms and serpents were equated as larger and smaller versions of the same creature.

Thus, while Jason was a hero for the Greeks, accomplishing feats of greatness through his courage, the Jonah story reinforces the importance of Yahweh above his relatively humble and meek human prophets.

While not all of Hamel’s argument is air-tight (both stories could, for example, descend from older Near Eastern antecedents), it is an interesting way of thinking about the interplay of Greek mythology and Biblical stories.

Bonus parallel: The Jonah story takes place at Joppa (now Joffa), the same place where late versions of the Perseus myth localized his battle with the giant sea monster threatening Andromeda. The bones of the monster (probably a fossilized whale) were available for inspection in Pliny's day according to his Natural History 9.4 (having been shipped to Rome in 58 BCE), and Lycophron (Alexandra 834-42) recorded that Perseus was swallowed by the dragon and killed it from within.

Reference: Gildas Hamel, “Taking the Argo to Nineveh: Jonah and Jason in a Mediterranean Context,” Judaism 44, no. 3 (1995): 341-359.

9 Comments

sita

8/26/2013 04:55:19 am

interesting topic but to you have a modern day parallel to jason?

Jason Colavito link

8/26/2013 04:58:22 am

I do not understand what you are asking. How would an article about the relationship between two ancient legends have anything to do with modern times?

jason

1/20/2020 10:28:21 am

jon as jason jason as jon , i am jason gibson,bignos ,is panokeo , is jonas s jason gibson.... Me Medears on me jack jones Star of davey jones locker house of benJaman big ben

Kevin link

11/4/2014 08:37:50 am

When mythological stories are found elsewhere in the world why is it suppose to be evidence of fake stories in the Old or New Testament?

Why are these myths not considered to be secondary to biblical accounts?

Why is a myth considered to be an original "truth" ?

If it were not for the supposed whale account in the Book of Jonah no one would speak of it being a fake or myth. Maybe the language is borrowed but the account real? And when I say real maybe its not relating to a real account of a fish swallowing a man but a leader being the sea monster overcomes Jonah for a period of time while the message gets out. After all, the leader of Nineveh repents some time after word gets out and the ordinary people repent. He did not immediately repent, so this maybe gives the picture that God keeps Jonah safe while in the midst of an empire that has slaughtered the Israelites. Interesting is that the Assyrians did worship a hybrid fish man type idol/ god and empires often had leaders claiming deity so if the story is seen maybe from a different perspective then maybe discounting biblical accounts should be rethought.

Andrew

6/6/2017 02:29:34 am

You ask good questions. One reason why we consider the Old Testament stories to have been borrowed from other myths, is because modern scholarship on the Old Testament has placed it's authorship to a much more recent period than had previously been thought. By scholars who are not bound to Biblical biases and who study it as a piece of literature, we can place Old Testament as having been formed between 600-800 BCE. How do we do that? Well for one, the Bible is filled with anachronisms (things belonging to periods of time when they couldn't have been there, i.e. the armor attributed to Goliath, wasn't developed in the time he was described as wearing it) Now you could argue that that was a redaction (an addition of the word to the text at a later period than the original) but for people who say the Bible is 'inerrant' (free of error) this is hardly an acceptable response.

Another reason is because we know now that the Jewish people were never a dominant people in the area... that they never had a kingdom so to speak, which meant they didn't have the influence on other cultures. They instead were more likely influenced (i.e. 'Noah's Arc' from the 'Epic of Gilgamesh') .

This isn't to say that we are saying that the other myths outside of the Bible are 'real' or tell about truthful events. They are all just myths, but still are useful for understanding the human condition. This is what myths help us to do. We need to understand that 'recording history' is itself a modern idea. Stories written in Biblical times were never intended to be history, just like the stories of Hercules. It was the meaning the events possessed, not their historicity that was important. Sure the setting was on Earth, but that is where the myth and reality separate.

I remember being disappointed when I learned that King Arthur's story wasn't really historical as a child. But when you move past that and begin to see how the myth reflects the heart of the human experience, you realise it is still meaningful.

So my advice, don't cling to the historicity of the stories. That'll only end in disappointment. Although painful to give up, you'll eventually see that they actually are far more interesting once the pain subsides.

Mythica

12/4/2016 03:27:57 pm

Ok cool

David.w

11/23/2019 06:19:50 am

It is debatable wether king Arthur was a real person. Some love the people were actually real such as Merlin. There was a Scottish ruler who some scholars think king Arthur was based from. They performed a cerimonly when he was crown at 15 where he pulls a sword from a crack made in two rock. The place exist that part is fact. Then about a 1/4 mile from there is an octagonal structure buried underground that myth has it as Arthur's round table. All of my resources are from the history channel they have a website fact check me if you want.

11/23/2019 06:27:03 am

I wish they would G.P.R. it. Sorry to get off topic. How ever my point is many myth are exaggerated accounts of actual stories. Some are retold today as "dramatic reenactments" to make it more entertaining.

Jim Hall link

8/18/2021 04:20:31 am

Thanks so much for this information. I used portions of it to compile the voiceover script for a video series I'm producing on the Jason/Jonah parallels.

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